On February 10, the reporter learned that delivery companies like YTO, STO, ZTO, Best and Deppon had successively restored their express networks from January 28 to February 9, making effective measures to ensure the prevention and control of novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) and the recovery of their production capacity. Other companies like SF, JD and Suning remained operating during the Spring Festival.

Courier industry to return to more than 40% of normal capacity by mid-February

China Post recently held a teleconference to make deployment for the containment and mitigation of the epidemic and the production capacity recovery of 7 delivery companies--ZTO, YTO, STO, Yunda, Best, Deppon and Suning. Ma Junsheng, head and Party secretary of China Post, called for "incremental progress" of the entire industry, that is, to set the recovery capacity objective (RCO) in stages and actively promote the recovery of online shopping express to meet the needs of people during the epidemic prevention and control period.

Ma added that 40% of normal capacity of the courier industry is expected to be returned by mid-February. By the end of this month, the proportion of production capacity will continue to be increased according to the actual situation. The production recovery in Wuhan and the rest of Hubei Province shall be subject to the overall arrangement of local governments.

How to avoid contact transmission

Many delivery companies told the reporter that in the actual delivery process, they still face such problems as the inability of couriers to enter residential quarters.

In light of this, Deppon Express requires couriers to deliver items by the “contactless” method. For the large items that can be delivered into residential quarters, customers can pick them up at their own doors, elevators or self-pickup sites.

Best Express adopts the mode of fixed-point receiving and sending and fixed-point delivery. The courier shall contact the customer by telephone, and priority shall be given to delivering to the smart parcel locker, the intelligent express box and temporary delivery area in residential quarters so as to reduce contact between personnel.

Over the coronavirus period, intelligent express boxes such as smart parcel lockers and Hive Box are regarded as important carriers for safe receiving, but many people still worry that the coronavirus will spread through delivery.

In response, several delivery companies have pointed out that according to the current understanding of NCP, its main transmission route is droplet transmission, plus contact transmission. The possibility of packages being infected by the coronavirus during transportation is relatively small, and there are no reports of people infected by NCP due to receiving delivery packages.

To avoid the risk of contact transmission, however, many delivery companies have taken various precautions, including preparing sufficient masks, gloves, disinfectants and other epidemic-prevention supplies for employees, strictly implementing the disinfection and ventilation for mails, parcels, transportation vehicles and production and operation places, strictly following the safety inspection system, and strictly prohibiting the receiving and sending of wild animals.

Protection of front-line employees of delivery companies strengthened

To resume operation during the epidemic control period, delivery companies must first guarantee the safety of returning employees, which requires not only to ensure epidemic-prevention supplies such as masks, disinfectants, gloves and other necessities, but also to strengthen their awareness of self-protection. For the safety and protection of courier outlets, the registration system, daily reporting system and emergency reporting system shall be implemented strictly. Delivery companies such as ZTO and YTO have set up special funds for the coronavirus period. If front-line employees of ZTO are infected and diagnosed with NCP at work, they will get a maximum subsidy of 500,000 yuan. YTO will offer a 100,000-300,000 yuan interest-free loan for three months to the company’s branches with financial difficulties according to the actual situation. The YTO headquarters have also purchased the "NCP insurance" to give it to every employee for free, including salesmen and operators.